SPEAK BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON: LITERARY ANALYSIS

PART 2 - SECOND MARKING PERIOD

CHAPTER 23 - Go _____________ (Fill in the Blank)!

Summary

Melinda begins by telling us that the Ecology Club won their battle to change the mascot from the Tigers to something else. The school board decides to allow a “democratic forum” to choose the new mascot. The students are herded into the auditorium where a discussion is held on what new name will be chosen. Melinda thinks “Overbearing Eurocentric Patriarchs” would be a good name, but she doesn’t openly suggest it. Instead, Student Council will hold an election before Winter Break in which the student body will vote for any one of the following: The Bees, The Icebergs, The Hilltoppers, or the Wombats.

Notes

This little chapter is interesting for the reader, because we see Melinda’s sarcasm and wit once again. However, more importantly, we see how really silly this school system is. In their attempt not to offend anyone, they are really just offensive anyway. It heightens our perception of Melinda’s world: how could people this stupid snub someone like Melinda? They are petty and ridiculous, but until she stands up for herself, they control her.

CHAPTER 24 - Closet Space

Summary

Melinda’s parents order her to stay after school every day in order to get help with her grades. She agrees, but spends the time in her secret closet. She wants to take down the mirror already on the wall, but since it is screwed into the wall, she covers it with a poster of Maya Angelou. Melinda knows Ms. Angelou is a great writer, because the school board banned one of her books. Then, Melinda sweeps and mops and adds a few books she has brought from home. Most of the time, however, she doesn’t read; she just “watches the scary movies playing on the inside of her eyelids.”

Melinda relates to us that it is getting even harder to talk, because her throat is always sore and her lips are continuously raw. When she wakes up in the morning, her jaws are clenched so tight that she has a headache. She can sometimes talk to Heather, but around her parents or teachers, she has “spastic laryngitis.” She recognizes that she has some emotional problems which she refers to as the “beast in her gut.” Sometimes, she wants to “confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else,” but most of the time, she uses her closet to “help her hold those thoughts inside her head where no one else can hear them.”

Notes

This is a very significant chapter, because it reveals that Melinda finds retreat and silence as the only way she can deal with what has happened to her. The closet, someone like Maya Angelou, and her “spastic laryngitis” keep her safe from dealing with a problem that is obviously too painful for her to think about. Also, it’s important to note that Melinda refers to herself as a perpetrator when she says she wants to “confess” everything. If the reader’s sense that she has been raped proves to be true, it is so sad to consider that this poor girl would believe she was in any way responsible for what happened to her.

CHAPTER 25 - All Together Now

Summary

Melinda observes that her Spanish teacher finally resorts to English to warn the class that they can no longer pretend that they don’t understand the assignments or they will receive detention. Melinda has the solution to the problem: if the teacher had just taught them all the swear words in Spanish the first day, they would have done whatever she wanted.

Because she doesn’t want detention, Melinda does the homework: choose five verbs and conjugate them. She chooses: traducer - to translate; fracasar - to flunk; escondar - to hide; escaper - to escape; and olvidar - to forget.

Notes

This is yet another small chapter, but one which is very revealing. Melinda again resorts to sarcasm to show how silly the authority figures around her really are. Her commentary is reflective of her feeling that adults don’t understand kids her age, nor do they seem to care. The verbs she chooses, of course, are reflective of her inner turmoil - she has trouble translating her world into one she can live with; she is failing her classes, be cause she just doesn’t care; she looks for any way to hide from others; she dreams of escaping to a place where she can find peace; and she strives every day to forget what has happened to her.

Of course, we know that until she deals with her pain, she is doomed to never achieve the peace she desires most.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: Free BookNotes Summary

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